Since its release 2 years ago, the SafeStore backup system has
received many commendations and been described by users as
"essential", "life saving", and "indispensable". But, as with any
software application, users had suggestions and ideas for how to make
it better. The result is one of the largest single updates we've ever
issued - there's nearly five times the functionality compared with v1!
The main enhancements are to the types of backup available.
SafeStore v1 had just one main backup type - "standard" - which backed
up data from one location to another, only transferring the changes
each time (what is known as a "differential" backup). This worked
well, but several other types of backup were requested...
Mirror - as well as copying changed files, deletions are
also applied to the destination, so you end up with an exact
clone of the source folder. This is more dangerous, because
deleting something from your source folder would delete it
from the backup, too, but for cloning hard drives, this mode
is very useful. It is also ideal for backing up your email.
Snapshot - this backup type takes full backups on a regular
basis, and cycles through a series of folders. At any time,
you'll have a number of complete backups to refer to.
Generational - previous generations of changed files are
preserved, so that as well as the most recent backup, you
have copies of the last few changes as well.
Incremental - A base backup is stored, with each set of
changes recorded separately. Periodically the changes are
rolled into the base backup, and the cycle continues.
Synchronise - Although we've temporarily disabled this until
we've given it a little more testing (have to be careful
when sync-ing deletions!), SafeStore 2 allows folders to be
synchronised between computers, with changes travelling both
ways.
It isn't just the backup types that have improved - SafeStore 2 has
many other improvements:
A built-in logging window provides an on-screen history for
each backup job.
As well as the ability to ignore folders, you can now
specify to ignore specific filetypes or filenames. For
example, you could tell it to ignore any sprite files when
backing up your photographs.
In addition to ignoring things, SafeStore 2 can "include"
folders, filetypes or filenames. This means you can tell it
to back up your photo library, including just the raw
images, or jpegs, or whatever.
A quick "one off" backup mode is available, which takes you
through the process of backing up your data in a single
window.
Automatic backup jobs can be temporarily disabled, then
re-enabled at a later date.
SafeStore applies automatic character re-mapping to deal
with characters in filenames that won't work when stored on
foreign filing systems (eg. PC or NAS). In SafeStore 2, you
have full control over these mappings, and can add your own.
You can now choose whether backups are stored in the
destination location, or in a sub-folder derived from the
name of the job. This makes it easier to clone one drive to
another, rather than your backup ending up in a folder with
the job name.
FTP and LAN/NAS backup modes have been improved.
Memory requirements have been *massively* reduced (large
backups can now take place on machines with as little as 1
or 2Mb of RAM), and performance has been increased.
SafeStore 2 is compatible with all RISC OS machines,
including the latest ARMv7 architecture systems.
More information is available during the backup - how many
files have been copied, the current file, number of failed
files, percentage of the way through large files etc.
Backups can be paused, resumed, restarted and so on.
Probably more besides - it's been a long project!